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Thursday, 5 November 2015

New XcodeGhost-Malware For iOS Developers Discovered

Researchers have identified a new variant of the XcodeGhost malware discovered trying to infect iOS developers so they put infected apps in the official Apple App Store. There are more than 200 companies worldwide, which infected iOS users roam.

XcodeGhost is spread via infected versions of Xcode, Apple's official tool for developing iOS applications. Because of its size, the program is 4GB in size, some developers in China choose not Xcode via Apple's website, but can be downloaded via unofficial download sites. The Xcode on these websites provide the XcodeGhost malware. The apps that developers were thus also became infected.

After the discovery of the infected apps in the App Store, Apple decided to remove and arranged so that Chinese iOS developers can program easier downloading. Although the hit iOS developers new clean apps have provided, there are still users who continue to use the affected versions. These include to the popular chat app WeChat.

It also notes that users with infected iOS apps also walk around within companies. Security firm FireEye discovered 210 enterprises which infected apps were trying to communicate to the outside. However, most companies are located in Germany and the United States.

New version

There is also a new version of XcodeGhost discovered in unofficial versions of Xcode 7. This is the Xcode iOS version 9. In this version added new features to iOS infect 9 and bypass static detection by Apple. Also, there is one app is discovered which had become infected via the new XcodeGhost malware and ended up in the Apple App Store. It is a Chinese shopping app that also was offered in the US store. Apple has the app been removed.